On this occasion, the main cause of death of the lynx was not natural, but several shots. Last week, the decapitated corpse of an Iberian lynx, an emblematic and protected species, appeared dumped on a farm in El Molar, a municipality located 39 km north of the city of Madrid near the NI. Several people came across the macabre discovery: their head and legs had been cut off. Immediately, the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) was notified, which is investigating the events to locate the culprit of such a terrible event.
The place where the animal appeared is not on the usual dispersal route of the species, which has not yet established itself in the Madrid community. For this reason, the agents are considering the possibility that it could be an animal hunted illegally elsewhere and transferred to this farm, sources from the Civil Guard tell EL PAÍS. The few specimens that have been detected in the region are individuals that disperse in search of a territory in which to settle from Toledo, where the reintroduction of the emblematic species has been a success.
After performing a necropsy on the animal, it was found that it had at least the impact of two gunshots. The same sources add that a hunter could be behind the events because the head is a part of the animals considered a trophy. People who commit this type of act face a crime against wildlife for killing a specimen of a protected species of wildlife, and may be sentenced to prison sentences of six months to two years, fines and disqualifications from practicing. of hunting.
The recovery of the species is considered a global success – it has gone from 94 specimens in 2001 to more than 2,000 – and leads to more sightings of lynxes, and, from time to time, the females take shelter to give birth in facilities such as haystacks. or farmhouses with little movement of people. He came across three small newborn lynxes in one of the warehouses where he keeps bales of straw. But, at the same time, population growth causes road accidents to multiply, and an increase in poaching. The conservation organization WWF has reported that “in parallel with this hopeful increase, poaching has re-emerged”, one of the main factors that brought the lynx to the brink of extinction in the past.
According to the data that the organization published in August 2023, poaching is the second cause of unnatural mortality of the species (5%), very close to road kill (6%). “Our analysis reveals that 233 lynxes were killed illegally from 2000 to 2021, the last year with available data,” they maintain. Some of these crimes, they add, are produced by non-selective, cruel and illegal hunting methods, such as poisoned baits or traps, while other times, the death is intentional and the lynx is hunted directly, as happens when they appear with shot dead. Added to all this is that “only 30% of lynx deaths due to poaching are detected. And that despite the fact that it is the most closely monitored species on the Iberian Peninsula.”
In the Community of Madrid there are still no established lynxes, but some specimens have been observed searching for territory. In June of last year, the stealthy feline was seen for the first time in Sevilla La Nueva, a municipality located in the southwest of the capital. The specimen crossed in front of a neighbor’s car returning home, passed about 50 meters away and did not escape, so it was possible to take some images of it.
Soon another appeared in Boadilla del Monte, a town in the same area, which decided to climb the fence of the Financial City of the Banco de Santander. Both specimens may come from neighboring Castilla-La Mancha, from the town of Montes de Toledo.
The last 2023 census, published this March, shows that the feline has doubled its population in the last three years and has reached 2,021 individuals, with . In 2001 only 94 individuals remained. But, despite the good data, experts indicate that 750 breeding females would be needed to classify the species in a favorable conservation status, and in this latest count 406 have been detected. However, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the highest scientific authority on species protection, lowered the species’ threat level to vulnerable after learning the data. A reduction that has not yet been applied in Spain.
